Chris Tambling dies at 50

It is with sadness that I have to report the sudden death of Christopher Tambling who had served as director of music at Downside for the past 18 years.
Many of you will be familiar with some of his compositions and arrangements for organ and choir.
His son Edward was the organ Scholar at Westminster Abbey who got into "hot water" and was dismissed over remarks concerning the Royal wedding in 2011 and composer John Rutter..
In addition to presiding over the magnificent though now ailing Compton of 142 stops in the glorious abbey building, Chris purchased my old Heyligers house organ which was installed in the Music School in addition to an old Viscount or similar set up for Hauptwerk to which he was an early enthusiastic convert.
With HW in mind, he purchased the old Makin that had originally been installed at Sedbergh school. It was then sold to Dollar Academy (where Chris had also been a teacher) and when Dollar had finished with it he bought it and put it in the school theatre at Downside. He was hoping eventually to have this huge console fully up and running in a large HW installation in the theatre / concert hall despite initially blowing up several Midi interface circuits in the process. This work was still in progress.

Not only has the world of music lost a distinguished figure but so too has the world of Hauptwerk.

Our sympathy to his family and all who knew him and benefited from his talents.

Rgds,
Ed

I host a two week tour of pipe organs int he U.K. each summer. This past July, we visited and played the Compton at Downside Abbey. Chris originally said he would not be able to join us as he had just gotten out of the hospital two days before, but said his son Edward would be there. When we arrived we were met by both Chris and Edward. The organ and building were magnificent - with 10 seconds of reverberation.

One of the organists on the tour, David Spicer, Director of Music at First Church of Christ in Wethersfield, CT, improvised a nine movement Organ Symphony on the hymn tune, "This is the Feast" during the tour. The recordings and pictures of each organ and building are on the website:

http://organtours.com/2015recordings.html

The Downside Abbey recording and pictures are Movement #2. As we entered the Abbey, the monks were finishing Matins and were singing the chant "Christus Vincit", so the improvisation starts and ends with that chant, before evolving into the hymn tune. The magnificent Harmonic Flute is prominent throughout the piece.

There is a picture of Chris - in the middle with red trousers at 4:01 in the piece - he was the most gracious host! He mentioned to me he was ill, but one would never know it and he did not want to dwell on it. So sorry to hear of his passing.

David is in the process of writing out the score of what he improvised and will dedicate this Movement to Chris.

I am in the process of adding another video/audio file of another organist in the group, Anna Jeter playing the Widor Toccata at Downside and Chris is much more visible in several places. You can see Chris in red trousers and blue shirt at 2:13, 3:56, & 4.22. The file is large - might have to download it before playing it. Also, have your sub-woofer set up for the pedal 32' Baryphone in the last section - quite spectacular.

God's grace be upon Chris.

Bob Clement

Hi Bob
What a wonderful tour holiday!
Just been on your website but cannot see any details other than the itinerary.
Is the tour only for your compatriots? I live in England.
Cheers
Brian

The only thing on the Home page is the Itinerary for 2016. Go to other pages (Towards the top of the Home Page) or to the History links at bottom left to see information on previous tours. The tour is open to anyone, although in the past we have only had people join from the U.S, Canada, and Australia.